Zero-Day Exploits – Your Days are Numbered! [infographic]

Fresh examples abound with alarming regularity and devastating effects, often involving defects with a dwell time of many months before they are formally addressed by patch updates.

Despite a sustained focus by Microsoft on improving cybersecurity top to bottom, dubious new records were set in both 2015 and 2016 for successful Windows kernel exploits.

This disturbing trend – zero-day exploits – is set to accelerate in 2017 with the recent release of the purported complete set of NSA hacking tools by Shadow Brokers, a massive data dump containing numerous previously unknown Windows kernel vulnerabilities and associated exploit toolkits. As these powerful hacking tools make their way into ever more hands, the potential for these types of attacks increases exponentially, as they no longer require nation-state sponsorship or expertise to effectuate sophisticated security breaches.

In addition, even well-known and longstanding kernel vulnerabilities continue to be exploited, as the backlog of fixes commonly lags exploit discovery by a substantial time period. Furthermore, enterprise Windows systems in production environments remain frequently unpatched by their owners or administrators.

Traditional Approaches Aren’t Doing the Job

Traditional layered defenses—even those augmented by next-generation detection tools involving artificial intelligence and machine learning—have a miserable track record against newly-discovered kernel threats, proving time and again that this “detect to protect” outdated approach is quickly reaching the end of its usefulness.

Common security tools in the standard “detection stack” suffer from a variety of systemic weaknesses because they:

Are primarily reactive against threats

Rely on existing signatures, heuristics, and behaviors

Cannot adapt to keep pace with a rapidly evolving threatscape

Do not protect users against themselves

Further compounding the problem, users continue to click recklessly on malicious links and attachments, share flash drives, and engage in other risky online behavior—including even trained security-minded individuals who think they are being careful all the time.

Michael brings an extensive track record in secure technology Product Marketing and Product Management, making technical concepts readily accessible to general audiences. He has an MBA in Information Systems and a JD in Law, along with a hands-on technical background in malware analysis sandboxing, encryption products, and multi-vector advanced threat defense. He is passionate about spreading the gospel of safe computing.